Feds are investigating whether Walz, Minnesota officials turned ‘blind eye’ to state’s massive ‘fraud scheme,’ Vance says

Vice President JD Vance put Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and other officials on notice that federal investigators are looking into what they knew about billions of dollars in human services fraud in the state — and whether they knowingly let it “fester” on their watch.

“This fraud ring that we’ve allowed to fester in this country, it defrauds the taxpayers. It also literally takes resources from the mouths of poor children,” Vance said in an interview on Fox News’ “The Will Cain Show” Wednesday.

The VP — who was anointed President Trump’s “fraud czar” in March — said the federal task force charged with rooting out the human services fraud — which the Trump admin has estimated totals between $9 billion and $19 billion — “did not get much help” from Walz’s office.

“Where we did actually get some help was from some state local law enforcement officers who we assigned to the federal task force because the state government wasn’t doing anything,” he said.

However at the state level, elected officials were either ignorant to or willingly ignored the scheme happening right under their nose, Vance said.

“There were multiple Minnesota authorities who were turning a blind eye to this fraud,” Vance claimed. “What we don’t yet know is whether they knew it was going on as it was doing on, but that’s one of the things that we’re looking at with these investigations.”

Vance vowed federal investigators will take a “hard look” at top Minnesota officials believed to have been aware of what he called a “fraud scheme” — which involves owners of child care centers and other businesses making off with huge sums of taxpayer dollars by submitting false billing statements for services.

“The fact that they turned a blind eye towards it for so long is a scandal. We’re also going to find out whether it was criminal,” he said.

He also slammed Walz for a series of X posts in which the governor — who announced he wouldn’t seek reelection in January as criticism for his perceived inaction mounted — appeared to be taking credit for a series of FBI and Department of Homeland Security raids targeting fraudsters in the state this week.

“If you commit fraud in Minnesota you’re going to get caught — and that’s exactly what we saw today. We catch criminals when state and federal agencies share information. Joint investigations work, and securing justice depends on it,” Walz wrote on X Tuesday in a newly adopted tough-talking stance.

“This is like the arsonist trying to claim credit for the work of the fire department,” Vance mocked.

Nearly two-dozen businesses across Minnesota, including the infamous “Quality Learing Center,” were raided on Tuesday as part of the federal government’s ongoing investigation.

Vance said the Biden administration also deserved blame for allowing millions of people claiming refugee or asylum status to stream into the country.

“You have people … who came into this country, many of them illegally, and six months later they’re driving Mercedes despite the fact that they don’t have a job,” Vance said.

“That doesn’t happen without some defrauding of the American taxpayer.”

He went so far as to say the Trump administration would “absolutely” explore the possibility of deporting or denaturalizing immigrants convicted of fraud.

“And that’s one of the angles that we’re looking at, is the people who committed immigration fraud against our system, and how do we denaturalize those people and send them back to where they came from.”

Gov. Walz’s office did not respond to a request for comment.